• Data is important to understand the movement, it can be added to experience, wisdom and science, and turned into Insight.
• This Insight may drive an action or decision – if and how to change a motor pattern.
• Either way, the coach still needs to communicate that action or decision to the athlete. The athlete still needs to understand, execute, and more importantly, Replicate the new pattern.
• There are many data collection systems that are used to understand sport movement, so it can be learned more efficiently. Many systems use Video or Motion Capture of an athletes’ performance for later review or further analysis, AFTER the movement has Already happened.
• Seeing an ‘error’ later is not the same as Feeling an ‘error’ in real time.
• Immediate sensory attention to an ‘error’ during the movement allows immediate awareness and self correction. This immediacy more closely mimics the way movement is learned (see also sensorimotor error prediction cycle).

Note: ‘error’ is subjective and refers to any difference in motor patterns between athlete’s Actual movement and their Desired movement.

• Human movement contains tiny variable differences in supposedly repetitive motions. Seemingly identical movements may not be identical, after examination of tiny micro-variations in motions of sport skills.
• There may be a correlation in elite motor performance and the ability to adapt to this inherent movement variability.
• Current pedagogy techniques like occlusion training, compensation and basic cross-training already encourage neural adaptations in movement. The concept of variability of movement supports for the mechanisms behind the effectiveness of these techniques.
• Research suggests the ability to adapt (movement adaptation strategies) can be taught, to help an athlete adjust to the inherent movement variability for better performance.
• Purposely training the ability to adapt, i.e. training kinesthetic awareness, instead of training to perfect, will improve motor performance.
• See also Deliberate Practice

There are different physical and temporal (time-related) demands for closed/discreet skills, those with a beginning and end (pitching, basketball, free throws, American football field goal kicks) when compared to open/fluid skills (running route to tackle an opponent in rugby, or a crossover-dribble-head-fake- jump-shot in basketball. These more complex skills are often multiple discreet skills sequenced together in a longer movement.

Neuroplasticity and compensation to change are the benchmarks of motor learning that are revealed in elite performance. A highly skilled quarterback can throw an accurate pass while the ‘usual’ mechanics are not available to him, for example while he is being tackled, or having his arm grabbed. And an elite tennis player can perform very well while playing with a frying pan instead of a racquet. High performance in these examples are demonstrations of advanced motor control strategies-aka adaptability.

The dynamical systems perspective (DSP) suggests that human movement contains inherently varying patterns, even when the individual intends to repeat the same movement. Rhythmic movements like walking/running and trained discreet movements like a golf swing or racquet swing have subtle variations in the degrees of movement.